


While You're Busy Making Other Plans

by amine



Series: Gen X and Gen Z [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 16:18:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amine/pseuds/amine
Summary: "Moments like those made Rhodey realize why Tony had opened his heart up to this kid even though he kept it guarded from everyone else. Peter was such a good kid. Even when he was giving people—read: Tony—heart attacks when he got himself into sticky situations, he was still so genuine that Rhodey was almost a little jealous that Tony had been the one to bond with him."





	While You're Busy Making Other Plans

For all of Tony’s arrogance and bravado, Rhodey knew better than anyone that Tony was a guy hiding a lot of pain. For years, he’d been the _only_ person Tony had trusted. Even then, he was still one in a very small circle of people that actually knew the real Tony.

Which was why Peter Parker was such an interesting anomaly. 

Peter was a kid, so it was understandable that there were a lot of things that Tony hadn’t told him and probably would never tell, but there were other ways in which Tony and Peter had gotten exceptionally close exceptionally quickly.

One of those ways was that Peter would show up at the compound on Friday afternoons like clockwork, greeting Tony with a cheerful “hi, Mr. Stark!” and getting a hair ruffle and an uncharacteristically genuine fond smile for his trouble. Rhodey was only occasionally around to join in on their antics, but he swore that Tony seemed younger and less haunted whenever Peter was around.

“Hi, Colonel Rhodes!” 

Rhodey had given up a long time ago at trying to get Peter to call him Rhodey or James or anything besides his title, just as Tony was resigned to always being “Mr. Stark” to that kid even though they were basically father and son at that point.

“Hey, kid. We finally going to play Shadow of the Colossus today?”

Peter’s face brightened. “Yeah! Oh, but...Mr. Stark was going to help me learn to cook. May’s a terrible cook, but I don’t want her to keep paying for takeout, so I thought I should learn so I can help her out.”

Moments like those made Rhodey realize why Tony had opened his heart up to this kid even though he kept it guarded from everyone else. Peter was such a good kid. Even when he was giving people—read: Tony—heart attacks when he got himself into sticky situations, he was still so genuine that Rhodey was almost a little jealous that Tony had been the one to bond with him.

As Tony’s closest friend for most of his life, though, Rhodey couldn’t be happier that Tony had someone he could love like that. He still hoped Pepper and Tony would have children of their own someday, but Peter was definitely Tony’s kid whether he had biological children or not.

They made their way to the kitchen where Tony grabbed the papers he’d abandoned and started to read over them. Peter made his way towards the fridge, and Rhodey watched in shock as Peter grabbed an apple from the fridge, took a bite out of it, then passed it off to Tony, who took it and also bit into it. Even more shocking was that they passed it back and forth between each other until Peter ran off with a comment about grabbing a sweater because he was too cold. Tony vaguely waved as he accepted the apple and started to finish it off. All of this happened while Tony never looked up from his papers.

Rhodey stood in stunned silence until Tony looked up at him and blinked.

“You hoping a bird will build a nest in your mouth? What’re you staring at?”

“Since when do you let anyone hand you things?”

Tony stared at the apple and then stared at Rhodey. He jerked the thumb of his free hand in the direction Peter had run off to and shrugged.

“Since the kid.”

“So next time I try to slip you the kale I don’t want to eat, you’re going to take it?”

“Nope.” He drew out the “o” and popped the “p” sound as he tossed the apple core into a garbage can across the room. “Only the kid gets to do that.”

Speak of the devil, Peter came back in wearing one of Tony’s hoodies, and Rhodey watched with a smile as Peter quickly rushed to Tony’s side as Tony was pulling out some pans to make spaghetti. As they chattered and planned out what they were going to do, Rhodey went to the fridge to grab some of the ingredients and chuckled to himself.

When they were younger and Tony had been hurt and angry beneath the arrogance and bravado, Rhodey had thought he’d never see the day when he could add another qualifier onto Tony’s description of himself. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist— _father_.


End file.
